IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iim/iimawp/12135.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Soaring on wings of aspiration and support: A study of married Indian women professionals staying away from families to pursue higher studies

Author

Listed:
  • Saxena, Richa
  • Bhatnagar, Deepti

Abstract

As the work environment is changing globally, newer trends of work and career mobility are emerging. ‘Return to school’ for the enhancement of career is considered as a means to career mobility. The present study explores what factors spur well-qualified married women professionals to take a break from their career so as to join a rigorous educational program which requires them to stay away from their families for a substantial time. This study is a part of a larger research on dual career couples. The research is grounded in the Indian context. The ten cases included in this study are of married Indian women professionals, who opted to stay away from their families (including, in some cases, babies and small children) in another city / country to pursue higher studies. This study is exploratory and qualitative in nature and is based on semi-structured interviews of the participants. In the backdrop of the traditional Indian society with stereotypical notions of gendered roles, the study focuses on the motives of professional women for such a decision, the facilitators, and the challenges faced by them during their academic pursuit. Dissatisfaction with work situation, need for skill enhancement, and an urge to develop one’s own identity emerged as the main motives. Support and encouragement from spouse and other family members as well as age were reported as key facilitators. The main challenges faced were psychological turmoil, strain on significant relationships, and the financial stretch and stress.

Suggested Citation

  • Saxena, Richa & Bhatnagar, Deepti, 2013. "Soaring on wings of aspiration and support: A study of married Indian women professionals staying away from families to pursue higher studies," IIMA Working Papers WP2013-10-04, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:iim:iimawp:12135
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iima.ac.in/sites/default/files/rnpfiles/18573577502013-10-04.pdf
    File Function: English Version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Rubb, 2006. "Educational Mismatches and Earnings: Extensions of Occupational Mobility Theory and Evidence of Human Capital Depreciation," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 135-154.
    2. Checchi,Daniele, 2008. "The Economics of Education," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521066464, September.
    3. Sicherman, Nachum & Galor, Oded, 1990. "A Theory of Career Mobility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(1), pages 169-192, February.
    4. Sicherman, Nachum, 1991. ""Overeducation" in the Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 101-122, April.
    5. Gary S. Becker, 1975. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education, Second Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck75-1.
    6. Hélène Challiol & Karim Mignonac, 2005. "Relocation Decision. Making and Couple Relationships : a Quantitative and Qualitative Study of Dual Earner Couple," Post-Print halshs-00005798, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Morsy, Hanan & Mukasa, Adamon, 2019. "Youth Jobs, Skill and Educational Mismatches in Africa," MPRA Paper 100394, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Hanan Morsy & Adamon N. Mukasa, 2019. "Working Paper 326 - Youth Jobs, Skill and Educational Mismatches in Africa," Working Paper Series 2452, African Development Bank.
    3. Altorjai, Szilvia, 2013. "Over-qualification of immigrants in the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Sucharita Ghosh & Emanuele Grassi, 2020. "Overeducation and overskilling in the early careers of PhD graduates: Does international migration reduce labour market mismatch?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(4), pages 915-944, August.
    5. Baert, Stijn & Cockx, Bart & Verhaest, Dieter, 2013. "Overeducation at the start of the career: Stepping stone or trap?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 123-140.
    6. Stephen Rubb, 2013. "Overeducation, undereducation and asymmetric information in occupational mobility," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(6), pages 741-751, February.
    7. Yeasung Jeong & Ayoung Lee & Joonmo Cho, 2018. "Educational mismatches and job resolution in South Korea, the USA, and Germany," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 32(2), pages 95-108, November.
    8. Philippe Wanner & Marco Pecoraro & Massimiliano Tani, 2021. "Does Educational Mismatch Affect Emigration Behaviour?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(4), pages 959-995, November.
    9. Esposito, Piero & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2022. "Educational mismatch and labour market transitions in Italy: Is there an unemployment trap?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 138-155.
    10. Juan Acosta-Ballesteros & María del Pilar Osorno-del Rosal & Olga María Rodríguez-Rodríguez, 2018. "Overeducation of Young Workers in Spain: How Much Does the First Job Matter? Social Indicators Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 109-139, July.
    11. José M. Arranz & Carlos García-Serrano, 2024. "Persistence of Overeducation Among Young Workers and Business Cycle," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 769-793, September.
    12. Mariana Olga De Santis & María Cecilia Gáname & Pedro Esteban Moncarz, 2022. "The Impact of Overeducation on Wages of Recent Economic Sciences Graduates," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 409-445, August.
    13. Jan Aleksander Baran, 2020. "Are Poles stuck in overeducation? Individual dynamics of educational mismatch in Poland," Working Papers 2020-23, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    14. Philipp Grunau & Marco Pecoraro, 2017. "Educational mismatch and promotions to managerial positions: a test of the career mobility theory," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(12), pages 1226-1240, March.
    15. Inmaculada Garc�a-Mainar & V�ctor M. Montuenga-G�mez, 2017. "Subjective educational mismatch and signalling in Spain," Documentos de Trabajo dt2017-03, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Zaragoza.
    16. Kampelmann, Stephan & Rycx, François, 2012. "The impact of educational mismatch on firm productivity: Evidence from linked panel data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 918-931.
    17. Schwientek, Caroline, 2016. "Are immigrants overeducated in Germany? Determinants and wage effects of educational mismatch," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 07/2016, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    18. Le Wen & Sholeh A. Maani, 2019. "Job mismatches and career mobility," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(10), pages 1010-1024, February.
    19. L. Cattani & G. Guidetti & G. Pedrini, 2014. "Assessing the incidence and wage effects of overeducation among Italian graduates using a new measure for educational requirements," Working Papers wp939, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    20. Keith A. Bender & John S. Heywood, 2017. "Educational mismatch and retirement," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 347-365, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iim:iimawp:12135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eciimin.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.